As the build up to UFC 229 ramps up, we are starting to see more and more interviews with Conor McGregor as he prepares for his blockbuster showdown with Khabib Nurmagomedov on Saturday night.
For the most part the Notorious' interviews have consisted of him slating his upcoming opponent and bigging up his own talents, but another more interesting topic that he has spoken about are the calls for the UFC to introduce additional weight classes in order to combat fighters continually failing to make weight.
On Fox Sport 1 McGregor was talking about his trilogy fight with Nate Diaz and again alluded to a new weight class suggesting that that fight could 'spearhead' a new 165 division. Even looking beyond the weight cut issue, McGregor believes that the move makes sense from the UFC's perspective as it would mean there are more belts on the line and the company would not have to strip fighters so frequently in order to make other fights more interesting by having a belt up for grabs:
I do believe we should go 145, 155, 165, 175, 185 even 195. Why not? Why not? They're stripping people left and right. They stripped me, I only walked out of the damn cage, they didn't even offer me a fight and I was getting stripped.
Cormier was injured or something happened to him, and then I got stripped myself because of that reason, just so they can juice up cards with belts. Well hey, stick in more weight divisions, more champions, why not? If that's what youse are doing anyway, youse want the belt on the line.
If it's the belt they are doing it for then why not add more divisions? More champions, more pay-per-views with belts on the line and it's going to help the athletes I believe with weight cutting and things like that.
